1. Technical Field
The present invention relates, generally, to techniques for generating automated reports, and particularly to the automated preparation of customer statements with customized notifications.
2. Background Information
Information processing centers handle an increasing amount of data, such as medical records, customer information, inventory information, delivery information, warehousing records, and billing information, among others. At the same time, many industries are consolidating resources to handle more efficiently the growing demands of information processing. Resources may be consolidated in to centralized processing centers that handle the needs of a single company or of a group of client companies.
Processing centers have been expanding to manage growing volumes of information for client databases, and can benefit from ongoing improvements in both hardware and software. Developments in semiconductor processing and component design have provided efficient systems for storing and processing large amounts of information. However, these advances in hardware often outpace developments in the software needed to manage the information.
As one example, past approaches to processing customer data (e.g., preparing invoices) generally relied upon inflexible hardcoded processing steps. While improved software may capture the desired processing steps at the time the software was written, its hardcoded nature may make the software inflexible, and in some cases, unsuitable for the customer at a later date. With such software, the customer may initiate changes, if at all, through an expensive, time consuming re-programming process in which a software vendor's programmer customizes the software to suit customer specifications.
Even when a customer is willing to incur the expense and delay, the customized software may still have further drawbacks. As an example, with every custom software release comes the need for individuals to track, understand, and support the revised software. Additionally, the updated software may need to be revised to include the specific customizations for individual customers. Consequently, custom software may increase the costs for the software vendor as well as introduce delay and inconvenience to customers.